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Well folks, its been a year since I started “seriously” taking Cosplay Photographs. I’ve learned a lot over this last year but I still have a heck of a lot more to learn!

As evident from my photos from last year’s MCM along with my revelation at Wigan Comic Con, I’ve been making a conscious effort not to just focus in on the “tight” crop to get around the rubbish backgrounds at a con. This proves to be a challenge sometimes as I like to wander around and its very much a case of wrong place, wrong time but if you’re in the right place at the right time, you can get some amazing photographs!

Not too long ago, a couple of friends of mine were discussing going to Japan. I aired my interest and next thing I know we’ve got flights and hotels booked – Woo!

Japan and its culture has always interested me; Mostly how vastly different they are with certain things and of course my love of Anime too! We opted to go in May so the weather was warm but not insanely warm and we missed the cherry blossom crazyness too. Whilst I was there on holiday, I was also there as a photographer. In hindsight, I would have suggested going for longer, or not cramming so much in as I did feel we didn’t have long enough in the places we went to to truly appreciate them (But we did still have an epic time!)

Based off the opening of my last post, it seems I’m falling into the trap of not updating here as often as I should 🙂

Since I went to Wigan I’ve attended a few of the NWC Meetups, my favorite of which was the Easter one. The sun was out and it was just nice to be outside (I got sunburnt!). The winner of the day for me has to be my picture of a lovely lady called Shannon. She was Cosplaying as a Female version of Noiz from Dramatical Murder and overall I think the cosplay really suited her.

It’s been a while since I posted anything on here – Truth be told I’ve not been up to much.

Back at the beginning of December, I went to Wigan Comic Con which would be my second proper convention since deciding I want to improve my Cosplay Photography. I didn’t take anywhere near as many photos as I did for MCM Manchester however having looked at both sets of images recently It’s clear that I seem to be favouring a head-and-shoulders crop which seems to make everything look “samey”. Granted, Hallway shooting at conventions does make it difficult to get a good variety of image styles, having realised this has inspired me to try to work around this to get a better array of images. This of course will have to wait for the next convention I attend in order to put this in practice fully.

This meet up was similar in nature to the last one I went to in that a bunch of Cosplayers get together, have photos taken and just have a good time.

I had a vague Idea of what Cosplay to expect through it being organized on Facebook and one of the characters was going to be Edward Kenway from Assassin’s Creed. Part of the job of being a Cosplay Photographer is finding suitable backdrops and locations – The evening before this event I remembered about the ruins of an old roman fort near where the meet was going to happen so I asked the Cosplayer and he was up for a mini shoot there

I’d recently purchased a Yongnuo YN-565EX II Speedlight and I wanted to experiment with it so I was using it for some of these shots for fill light – Be it for better or worse.

Recently I was lucky enough to stumble across a local Cosplay event that had been shared on Facebook and with it being around the corner from me and on my time off, I felt almost obliged to go! The event was organised and hosted by “Pixie Cakeface” and “EeVee Cosplay” who both did an awesome job with their Cosplay and also at organizing the event.

I took a few shots of some of the Cosplay (admittedly I didn’t get as many different people as I wanted to) and then started to play around with different perspectives and positioning.

One Cosplayer in particular took most of my interest because I’m a sucker for detailed costumes and intricate designs. She was Cosplaying Katarina from League of Legends – Here’s her Facebook page if you want to check her out.

Seeing other photos from the event has made it clear to me I need to work on positioning and posing of my subject more if I am to improve in this type of Photography.

There’s a similar event supposed to be happening at the beginning of November so lets see what I can do for that one!

Phil and I had been discussing going on a trip to a Lighthouse recently – Any Lighthouse would do. We found “South Stack Lighthouse” on Google Maps that was located in Anglesey, North Wales.

With the shifts Phil and I work, it has proved difficult to get a time where we’re both available, but this weekend was such a time! The weather wasn’t great, but we both fancied the trip and considered it “Reconnaissance” for a future jaunt later in the year / early next year in the winter. We aimed for sunset and got there with plenty of time, but sadly there was a chance the weather would turn, and turn it did. Never the less we got some usable shots of the Lighthouse / surrounding area.

On Sunday, we spent most of the morning walking around Holyhead harbour looking at the Breakwater and its Lighthouse then heading home with a quick stop on the Menai Straight for both the Britannia Bridge and Suspension Bridge before calling an end to the trip and heading home.

This weekend was an event I’ve been waiting a long time for! I’ve been intrigued by cosplay for a while, and when I went to London Anime Gaming Con back in Feb, I decided I wanted to improve my skills quite specifically in this area. Being in the north of the country and having the majority of the big events in London makes travel costs prohibitively expensive. MCM Manchester is basically on my doorstep!

Today was Manchester Day! A day of celebrating everything Manchester. Naturally I wanted to be out there taking pictures! I set off with the intention of trying to include some motion blur in some shots to make them more visually appealing but I didn’t account for, well, motion.

Thinking back, I’m not entirely sure why I was using AV mode – TV would have been far better – I completely forgot it was there!

Two things I’ve learned over the last couple of weeks is that your lens is never long enough, and cropping in is your friend!

A few weeks back a longtime friend of mine invited me along to Oulton Park with him to watch the BTCC rounds 10, 11 and 12. I have to admit, I don’t enjoy Motorsport to the same level as he does, but It certainly can be entertaining! I knew this would be a great opportunity for capturing some great photographs so off we went.

Unfortunately we arrived late so missed our chance at the Pit Walk which would have probably given some interesting shots never the less I got some shots I am happy with and in the end, that’s all that matters